Many restaurants and bars are now restricting mobile phone use during meals. While fine dining places once allowed customers to post photos of their food, a growing number of venues now ask diners to put away their devices. Owners hope this change will reduce digital distractions and help people talk to each other more.
Venues use different methods to keep phones away from dining tables. At the Spy Bar in London, staff place stickers over phone camera lenses to protect privacy. In Charlotte, North Carolina, a bar called Antagonist requires guests to lock their phones in special pouches. Meanwhile, a restaurant in Italy named Al Condominio offers a free bottle of wine to customers who hand over their phones before their meal, an offer accepted by most visitors.
This phone-free trend is spreading from independent venues to major chains. Pizza Express introduced phone-free afternoons, and Wetherspoons asks customers to keep their devices on silent. Although some people choose to eat elsewhere, many diners support the policies because they want to focus on their food and enjoy real human connection.